Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps(2025)

In Vanda's Room(pt)

An unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but taking as main focus the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.

The Man Without a Past(fi)

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

Shotgun Stories(en)

Shotgun Stories tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.

Freaks(en)

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

Julieta(es)

The film spans 30 years in Julieta’s life from a nostalgic 1985 where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness.

Mon Oncle(fr)

Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city, and cannot fathom why his sister's family has moved to the suburbs. Their house is an ultra-modern nightmare, which Hulot only visits for the sake of stealing away his rambunctious young nephew. Hulot's sister, however, wants to win him over to her new way of life, and conspires to set him up with a wife and job.

The Kid with a Bike(fr)

Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in the hands of an unqualified childcare provider.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover(en)

The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.

You Don't Choose Your Family(fr)

César Borgnoli, an unsuccessful car salesman from Italy, lives well beyond his means. In order to get out of his financial disaster, he agrees to a deal: he pretends to be the husband of his sister's girlfriend Kim so she can legally adopt a little girl from Thailand. Caesar believes this to be a great idea and is looking forward to his trip to Thailand. After all, he is going to be able to mix business with pleasure--so he thinks. He didn't expect the local police, the Chinese Triads and the director of the orphanage to chip in, who want to make sure that little Mai is going to end up in a nice family.

About Elly(fa)

The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.

Black Mass(en)

The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

Bride of Re-Animator(en)

Unperturbed by the disastrous outcome of his previous meddling with the dead, Dr. West continues his research into the phenomenon of re-animation; only this time, he plans to create life – starting with the heart of his young protégé Dan's dearly deceased Meg Halsey.

Late Spring(ja)

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

Buffalo '66(en)

Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.

Love at First Fight(fr)

Arnaud, facing an uncertain future and a dearth of choices in a small French coastal town, meets and falls for the apocalyptic-minded Madeleine, who joins an army boot camp to learn military and survival skills to prepare for the upcoming environmental collapse. Intrigued and excited by Madeleine’s wild ideas, Arnaud signs up for the boot camp himself. They soon realize that the boot camp is harder than they’d imagined, but the experience nonetheless cements them together as the couple continues to explore their young love.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance(de)

71 scenes revolving around multiple Viennese residents who are by chance involved with a senseless gun slaughter on Christmas Eve.

The Psychic(it)

A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.

Re-Kill(en)

Five years after a zombie outbreak, the men and women of R-Division hunt down and destroy the undead. When they see signs of a second outbreak, they fear humanity may not survive.

Opera(it)

A young opera singer is stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself.

Apur Sansar(bn)

Apu, now a jobless ex-student dreaming vaguely of a future as a writer, is invited to join an old college friend on a trip up-country to a village wedding.

Mr. Nobody(en)

Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.

Ponyboi(en)

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.

Let It Snow(en)

In a small town on Christmas Eve, a snowstorm brings together a group of young people. They soon find their friendships and love lives colliding, and come Christmas morning, nothing will be the same.

Aurora Borealis: Northern Light(hu)

The Aurora Borealis is a story of family that is rich in twists and turns. It breaks the depths of the relationship between mother and daughter. A successful lawyer in Vienna, Olga is called back to Hungary when her old mother, Mary suddenly falls into a coma. While Mary is floating between life and death, Olga finds a deeply silent secret. The increasingly passionate research leads back to the post-war Europe of the '50s.

I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story(en)

The movie follows Suleman’s journey starting from her decision to have one more IVF procedure to complete her then family of six, to becoming a mother of 14, having survived her life being torn apart by the tabloid media.

The Incident(ro)

Three separate stories – a mother, her teenage daughter, and a police officer – converge thanks to one event: the titular incident, wherein a dog is injured.

True Mothers(ja)

After suffering through a long and unsuccessful series of fertility treatments, Satoko and her husband Kiyokazu make the decision to adopt a child. Six years after adopting a boy they named Asato, Satoko has quit her job to concentrate fully on her husband and son. The family lives a peaceful existence until the arrival of a stranger.

Soldier's Girl(en)

This true story, which takes place in Fort Campbell, KY, tells the heart-wrenching story of the life and tragic death of soldier Barry Winchell. His love for Calpernia Addams, a transgender nightclub performer, was misunderstood by his fellow soldiers and eventually led to his murder.

Valentine's Day(en)

Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day.

Mother at War(da)

1918. World War I rages in Europe while Erna Jensen tends to her ordinary life at home in Bramstrup, with her simple-minded son, Kalle. One day the village constable comes to enlist Kalle for military service for the German Empire – of which Southern Jutland is a part. If Erna is to save Kalle from certain death, she must follow him through thick and thin. Upon a chance meeting with a deserting solder she trades identities. Now disguised as Private Julius Rasmussen, Erna heads for the front. In her encounters with the other soldiers and in the presence of the war, unknown sides of Erna are awoken. This is the story of a woman who won’t let a war prevent her from fighting for what she loves.

Figurky ze šmantů(cs)

Three short stories about the people and folk around the shaft.

If These Walls Could Talk 2(en)

The stories of three lesbian couples -- who live in the same house at different periods of time -- who are at a crossroads in their lives. In 1961, Edith loses her lover, Abby, to a stroke. Linda and Amy struggle with feminist issues in 1972. And, in 2000, Kal and Fran try to have a baby with the help of sperm donor.

On the Doll(en)

A lurid, dark look into the lives of sex workers, where victims of child abuse deal with the consequences later in life.

The Living End(en)

Two HIV-positive young men — a semi-employed film critic and a hot hustler — tear off on a cross-country crime spree.

Dodes'ka-den(ja)

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story(en)

The story of Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen who was murdered in California in 2002.

Maleta Llena(es)

Young Cain(es)

Juana moves with her son Juan from the country to Caracas in search of better work and educational opportunities. When they get there they have to live in a poor home in one of the slums located in the city's outskirts, where they encounter a horrible world full of promiscuity and misery, that is quite different from what they expected and that eventually will lead Juana to self-destruction and Juan to reconsider his life in the city.

I Don't Know(en)

A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfiction film – an unusual, partly staged work of semi-verité – is the first of Spheeris’s films to fully embrace what would become her characteristic documentary style: probing, intimate, uncompromising. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

Blonde Venus(en)

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.